Struggling with a slowdown across segments, the Indian property market is moving towards the next phase of consolidation. Liquidity crunch in the real estate market is beginning to drive many mid-sized and small developers to beg for cover.
Many want to liquidate their land and incomplete projects by selling them to bigger developers or private equity players even at lower valuations. This is due to the stagnant market conditions. Around fifteen deals in real estate sector have fallen through in the past two months with investors developing cold feet.
A mid-sized builder at Chembur in Mumbai has put its fourteen floor commercial property in central Mumbai on the block. The developer wants to raise around one hundred fifty crore rupees which would help him complete his upcoming project.
A Hyderabad-based real estate group has started advertising to attract high networth investors to generate fifty crore rupees against bulk purchase of its housing project in the city. A small developer in Mumbai, pushed to a corner on account of mounting payables for construction material, is now offering its project at Juhu-Versova in Mumbai at about 35% discount to the current market price. In Delhi, some developers have approached property consultant to sell their income generating commercial properties to finance some of the unfinished projects.
Real estate funds and established developers admit that they are working on various proposals. Hiraandani Developers chairman Niranjan Hiranandani said, “Even in the normal circumstances we used to get offers from mid-sized developers to buy out their projects. But now, the numbers have increased considerably”.

Ludhiana-based realtor Impact Projects Pvt Ltd on 30th June signed a joint venture (JV) agreement with equity fund company South Asian Real Estate (SARE) to set up 2 luxury townships in Amritsar. The Isle of Man-based SARE has made investments in a lot of housing projects in India through JV with Indian property developers.
The two projects will be set up at an investment of eighteen billion rupees Impact declared here.
Impact Projects is sponsored by Harpal Singh, the non-executive chairman of Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd.

Advocate General Punjab Hardev Singh Mattewal stated that the Punjab Government was committed to safeguard the rights of the Non Resident Indians (NRIs).

This was disclosed by Mattewal while talking to media persons during his private visit to London. He said the Punjab Government was making all out efforts to resolve the issues pertaining to NRIs. He urged the NRIs to make huge investments in the states’ development programmes. He pointed out that during his visit to London he called upon the NRIs to come forward to invest in Punjab in a big way. He also met various deputations of NRIs there and assured them of state government’s fulsome support and cooperation.
Appreciating the historic decisions taken by the Badal Government for the welfare of NRIs during the NRIs Sammelan held in Punjab, Mr. Mattewal termed it as a ’step in the right direction to win over the confidence of NRIs’. A high level committee was also constituted during this Sammelan which had so far resolved many vexed issues relating to the problems of the NRIs, said Mr. Mattewal.
Mattewal said that Punjab was making rapid strides under the stewardship of Chief Minister Mr. Parkash Singh Badal. He hoped Punjab would soon emerge as the most preferred investment destination and a Commercial Center as the diverse sectors of Industry, Real Estate, Education and Health Services in Punjab had recently witnessed huge expansion in these fields..
Replying to a query raised by the media persons, Mr. Mattewal said that he was here on the private visit and not on official one. He said he had come here to participate in a religious function organized by the London based Gurdwara where he was honored by the local Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee.
To another question Mr. Mattewal said that Mr. Badal had already setup special Police Stations for the NRIs in the state to redress their complaints and grievances on the priority. He said he was given war welcome by the NRIs settled in London and would ever cherish these memorable moments throughout his life. “I have personally realized the hardships being faced by the NRIs here and would soon take up this matter with the Punjab Government for their immediate and solution on the top priority, said Mr. Mattewal.

India and China have significantly improved their levels of real estate transparency, an indicator of real supply and demand in the sector, over the last two years.

According to real estate transparency index complied by professional services firm specializing in real estate, Jones Lang LaSalle, the biggest improvers in Asia Pacific are India, China and Vietnam.

The index, which provides a framework for comparing the level of real estate transparency in eighty-two markets around the world, shows that nearly half of the countries surveyed in 2006 demonstrated a significant improvement in their transparency score two years later.

Indian emerging real estate cities are ranked in the semi -transparent level along with China’s Tier 1 Cities, which is the third category after highly and transparent levels in the index.

Besides, India’s Tier III cities have also improved their levels and joined the low transparent level along with Tier II and Tier III cities of China.

It added that China had exhibited maximum improvement, moving up to the semi-transparent level and is now considered more transparent than India.

The pursuit of higher returns, as the stock market tanks, has investors searching different other investment options outside the conventional bank deposits. One such avenue that has caught the interest of several investors in recent times, especially in the tier-II towns of the South, is the fixed deposits offered by big jewelry chains.

These jewelry chains, mostly in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, have been catching the attention of depositors from smaller investors at interest rates that are 3-5% over bank fixed deposits.

While dozens of cash-hungry companies, especially real estate, have also been offering competitive rates for deposits, investors are cautious of putting money in many of them, as they lack confidence about the safety of these deposits. But these big jewelers, though unregulated, have been able to draw investors to them because of the higher trust in them.

“People perceive investments in deposits of jewelers as ‘safe’ because there is gold involved. Also, this business is all about ‘trust’. While manufacturing companies have defaulted in the past, you would not hear of any defaults from a jeweler,” said a manager at a Kochi-based jewelry chain, which accepts these deposits. There has been no dearth of demand for such deposits because of the amount of unaccounted money present in the system, partly driven by the real estate boom across the country.

If you bought or sold a house or a plot for more than Rs 30 lakh, then expect a knock from tax hounds. Real estate sector is high on the radar of the income-tax department, which is going to keep a close watch on buyers or sellers of property.

Realty deal whose value is more than eight times the gross income of the buyer could come under the scanner of the I-T department, going by the latest scrutiny norms circulated to officials. So, if your gross income is ten lakh rupees per annum and you have bought a house for more than eighty lakh rupees, you could get a call from the department.

Gross income, for this purpose, shall be total income plus exempted income minus the total tax paid. This norm is being adopted to ensure that there is no evasion and people who enter into such transactions pay taxes honestly.

Cash deposit of ten lakh rupees in your savings account could also bring you on the scrutiny radar. Individual assesses now have to report transactions which get captured in Annual Information Return (AIRs). Sale or purchase of house more than thirty lakh rupees is reported, under AIR, by registrars to the department.

Scrutiny on these counts would be generated though Computer Assisted Scrutiny System (CASS) and not through manual intervention.

According to the criterion that were discussed at the recent annual conference of the chief commissioners and directors general of income-tax, capital gains of more than Rs twenty-five lakh could also attract scrutiny by the department in the current financial year.

Similarly, loss from house property of more than Rs 2.5 lakh would also invite the I-T department’s scanner. The real estate sector, which is known to attract large quantum of black money, continues to draw the attention of tax department.

Real estate agents and builders having a turnover of more than Rs 5 crore could attract scrutiny. Professionals like doctors, architects whose gross receipts exceed forty lakh rupees and those who report profit of less than 30% of the gross receipt, can also face scrutiny.

India’s National Housing Bank plans to raise one hundred ten billion rupees during the year to March 2009 to meet its loan demand. According to the chairman and managing director S. Sridhar declared that out of this one hundred and ten billion, it will raise thirty billion rupees through zero coupon bonds and another ten billion rupees via retail deposits.

The housing finance regulator also plans to set up a mortgage guarantee firm in four months, in which it will be the single largest stake holder.

Disha Direct, the pioneers of the second Home concept productively full five years in real estate industry.
Disha Direct nowadays offer services around the entire field of real estate be it residential properties in cities and towns, second homes away from the city, plots of developed land, commercial properties, expansive acres of land or some rare charismatic homes. With all mod cons with a team of over one hundred seventy professionals, seven brands, ten offices, eight finished projects, twenty eight current projects and three thousand five hundred satisfied customers; Disha Direct is an organization spreading its arms in the realty sector.
On the occasion of its anniversary celebrations, Disha Direct properties remain devoted to its five strong factors – Zero Risk Property, Realistic & Fixed Price, Disha Care – a property management group, Go Green – an attempt to provide projects set in the greenest of places and three thousand five hundred satisfied customers.
In this month-long celebratory event, Disha Direct plans to add to the customer’s convenience by making itself accessible at the distance of a phone call. Customers interested in latest projects can just make a call and be rest assured that a Relationship Manager will visit them with a complete presentation of the project of their interest. Property buyers in this celebratory period can enjoy the exclusive privilege of availing flat five percent concession on any property they choose from a wide collection of properties sponsored by Disha Direct. Apart from these, during the month long celebration property buyers can expect a bag full of surprises and other eye-catching offers.
All in all the anniversary celebrations at Disha Direct come as ‘Happy Hours’ for the property seekers.
Disha Direct is a foremost real estate marketing organization. Having made its foray into real estate marketing five years before specializing in second homes in scenic localities away from the city, the company has established itself as the preferred name in the real estate industry. Currently the company has seven different brands covering different real estate properties.

Engineering and construction, L&T, currently has real estate projects worth $2 billion in hand, said sources familiar with its plans. Most of these projects are in the form of special purpose vehicles, joint ventures and contracts. The SPVs also include a Rs 2,500 crore project in Chandigarh, sources told.

Separately, Larsen & Toubro announced that it has bagged a Rs 1,557 crore order from Andhra Pradesh Power Development Company Limited (APPDCL).

In the morning trade on 30th June (Monday), L&T was trading up by 0.5 % to Rs 2,277 in the early noon deals.

After success into Dubai, real estate player Omaxe is all set to enter the Mauritian property market with a plan to develop a fifty acre residential project.

The Delhi-based company has identified a project of fifty acres and planning to develop a residential township there. The land for the township is probably to be provided by the government and the company is expecting to receive the ownership of the land within a week. Omaxe would carry out the Mauritian project alone.

The company would develop a residential project about thirteen hundred crore rupees through SPV Golden Crescent RED and General Trading Ltd. Another project worth fifteen hundred crore rupees would be developed through SPV Marine Sands.

Omaxe said in May that it would develop ten lakh affordable housing units with an investment of eighty thousand crore rupees in India over the next half decade. For this purpose, it has set up a new subsidiary named National Affordable Housing and Infrastructure Ltd.

Landmark Land Holdings Pvt Ltd, the real estate investment arm of the Dalmia group, has acquired 10 % equity stake in an Integrated Township and Special Economic Zone (SEZ) project at Hinjewadi, Pune, being developed by Kumar Builders.

The proposed SEZ will be established in 124 acres of land, adjacent to the Rajiv Gandhi Software Technology Park at Hinjewadi, a Landmark release on 30th june said. The project is likely to generate revenues in excess of one billion dollar.

However, the company did not specify the size of the deal. Landmark will have an option to increase its stake to 49 % in the future.

Landmark has 20 ongoing projects under development, which have a sales value of five billion dollar.

Autolite India established in 1970, in the field of Designing, Manufacturing and Market ing of Automotive Lighting products globally. The Company has made surprising growth in business through its innovative products at competitive prices. It is amongst few in the world who have installed Computerized Photometry Testing Equipments, CNC, CAD, CAM design and Tool manufacturing facilities Catia and Pro-E Softwares. Its testing laboratory is recognized by Govt. of India.

The board of directors of company has decided to enter into high profitable real estate & retail segment with regard to the possibilities of diversification in real estate business.

A high level committee has been formed for this purpose to explore the possibilities of real estate business with regard to SEZ, IT Park, commercial complex, residential complex, etc.

Shares of the company gained Rs 0.75, or 1.74%, to trade at Rs 43.75. The total volume of shares traded was 710 at the BSE (11.36 a.m., Monday).

With growing inflation and interest rates leading to a slackening in property demand, 1% to 1.5% increase in interest rates could further impact the real estate sector.Jones lang LaSalle Meghraj Chairman and Country Head Anuj Puri said, “The demand is already slackening. The real estate sector can absorb another 100 to 150 basis points rise in interest rates, but anything beyond that will hit the industry hard”.

Further he said that the current trend of drop in demand would continue for about two years as there is no sign of inflation cooling down and high chance of interest rates becoming harder.

Mr. Puri, however, said that there was no shortage of demand in Mumbai and Delhi, but in other parts of the country far less number of property transactions are taking place. The slackening in demand, coupled with liquidity crunch, could lead to consolidation in the realty sector as smaller players will find it difficult to survive.

He said, “Smaller players will have to partner with bigger ones or offer stakes to financial partners to complete their projects”.

Further he added that there is no scarcity of demand for office space in the country as overseas companies are now leaning more towards India for outsourcing. As a result, even smaller cities are becoming an attractive destination.

The loan against property rates are fixed by the loan amount, credit ranking of the borrower and the equity of the pledged security. All these three reasons affect the interest rate directly.
The modification of 1991 marked the dawn of Indian financial system. Capped with professionalism, hi-tech IT applications and diversification, Indian financial and loan market has now at its highest altitude. The entry of overseas banks has supported the system to get better its services. Now, competition is at all time high in the Indian housing finance business. With the improved contest, the customer has a number of alternatives to select his housing finance company (HFC) to apply for a loan according to the need.
The loan against property is on the rise in the attractiveness chart as more and more Indians are nowadays taking these loans as the most cost effective solution for their needs. The banks have two prime concerns while providing a loan against home:-
1. Repayment capacity of the borrower credit risk involved in the loan deal.
2. Title of property(If it free from any legal hassles or not).
The borrower to whom the bank is lending should have the capacity to pay the loan amount back in the assigned time period. Repayment capacity is a major concern of the bank while lending funds to anyone. In case of salaried loan applicants, the borrower needs to have a cheque salary which can be verified by the bank. A track record of salary entries in a bank statement reflects consistency and genuineness of the income source of the borrower.

Increasing interest rates and a declining demand may dent the realty market in India. However, the long-term forecasts for the sector continue to be good, senses the industry.
At a seminar on the real estate market in India here on 27th June, most of the realty players confessed that there was a liquidity crunch due to the increase in interest rates. However, this is not going to discourage long-term investors from investing in India, they added.
Termed as “Elephant Investors,” these investors such as pension funds and endowment funds are just waiting in the groups to enter the Indian market, said A. V. Kapoor, managing director of Saffron Asset Advisors Pvt Ltd.
“There are around 21 India-dedicated real estate funds that are raising money in the international market. In the next 9 months, I believe nearly $7 billion will be entering the country through different India-dedicated funds,” Kapoor said.
“While long-term players are look at India, small-term players based in the US & Europe, for example the hedge funds and private equity players, are further interested in their local markets,” said Alex Hayim, director of REIT Property Management India.

NRI loan interest rate depends a lot on the reason of borrowing. When the reason is to invest in share or commercial immovable property market, the interest rate to be paid is higher than any loan borrowed by the NRI to be invested at an employment generating project.
The RBI has recently prohibited public and private sector banks from lending more than Rs 20 Lakh against the deposits of NRIs. This ban is imposed by the apex bank on doubt that a huge part of such loans is being diverted for speculation in shares and immovable property market. These cautious steps from the apex banking body are aimed at ensuring that bank credit is streamlined towards productive sectors other than the retail sector. It will definitely squeeze the extra investment flow particularly in commercial real estate and capital markets. The hike in standard assets provisioning will lead to a raise in retail lending rates.

According to Keki Mistry, vice chairman of Housing Development Finance Corp An increase in the housing supply, rising borrowing costs and a stock market rout are bringing a five-year property boom in India to a close, according to executives at two mortgage lenders. Property prices across the country could drop as much as 15% in the coming months. Gagan Banga, chief executive of Indiabulls Financial Services Ltd., predicted prices could decline as much as 20%.

Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram has said the double digit inflation will continue for some more weeks.
The Central Government as well as the Reserve Bank of India is not going to hesitate in taking more steps to control towering prices, if the need arises with the markets also reacting adversely to the two major concerns – high inflation and oil price hike.
But one asset, which seems to be inflation-proof, is real estate, which is now starting to show signs of softening, particularly with banks raising interest rates and loans getting more difficult.
With possibility of home loans becoming dearer, this is still a excellent time to buy property. Property experts even say switching to Tier II and Tier III cities is a good option.
With the RBI raising repo rates to 8.5 %, one can expect a decline in property prices. Experts predict a further slide in prices of 5-10 % over the next quarter.
“If the sentiment remains the same, the mortgage rates go up; they would impact the demand as well as prices. There will be further drop seen in both.” Anshuman Magazine, Chairman & MD, CB Richard Ellis, says.
So a drop in demand could force property developers to bring down to prices to help increase demand. Many builders, especially in Mumbai, are now offering discounts to attract buyers.
“If you have a good location, some money, and a good developer, then you must buy now and not wait,” BP Dhaka, COO, Parsvnath Developers, says.
Residential property prices have gone down by 15-20 % in the past few months across the country. For consumers, this may be a good time to buy a property but yes, bearing that loan may become tougher
So, an informed decision may help you clinch a good real estate deal that is facing a price correction in several parts of the country.
Also, the options to move to Tier II and Tier III cities can also be considered. According to experts property prices will go down in these cities even more as compared to the metros.

Hindustan Times Media Limited has purchased 0.65% stake in real estate foremost Sunil Mantri Realty for twenty crore rupees, which will be used by the latter to finance new projects.
Taking about the contract, Sunil Mantri Realty’s chief financial officer Mr. R. Arora said that this collaboration will enable the organization to achieve further planned goals of future. Sunil Mantri Realty has residential and commercial developments in Mumbai, Hyderabad, Pune, Bangalore, Solapur, Nagpur and Gwalior.

The company had recently signed a memorandum of understanding with MSC Cyberport Sdn Bhd Malaysia to work together in the development, construction, marketing and funding of Bandar MSC Cyberport, which is a 6534000 square feet project.

According to estimate made by ASSOCHAM, the FDI component in the domestic real estate market is expected to be thirty billion US dollar as against its total amount of one hundred two billion US dollars in next decade as the real estate sector escalation will raise up by more than 30%.
Additionally, ASSOCHAM report stated that, the domestic real estate market is expected to be of fifteen billion US dollars in which the FDI contribution is estimated around six billion US dollars. The bank credit to this sector in 2006-07 has been estimated around three lakhs crore rupees, which will multiple substantially in the future years considering the growth that the sector has been registering.
Mr S. Jindal president of ASSOCHAM said that presently the foreign developers can take on construction actions on a minimum space of fifty thousand square feet in consequence of which Indian real estate sector could achieve FDI’s component around six billion US dollars.
Mr. Jindal further said, “The upper limit of fifty thousand square feet would be lifted by the government as it is under continuous pressure for increased FDI’s which as per ASSOCHAM estimate will increase to two lakh square feet in subsequent decade in a gradual manner and result for much higher foreign capital absorptions”.

Indian real estate firms expect a hit on margins for the next few quarters as the central bank’s move to raise interest rates this week will push up costs and keep potential buyers away from the market.
Developers, already facing a demand slowdown, have refused to lower the price line as they seek to make up profits despite high land costs and curbs on funding. However, higher interest rates in the economy could push them to choose survival over pride.
The Reserve Bank of India late on 24th June raised its key lending rate and cash reserve requirement by 50 basis points each to curb price pressures. Inflation jumped to its highest in more than 13 years in mid-June to 11.42 percent.
As a result, lending rates of banks are seen close to 13 percent, levels last seen nearly a decade ago, while interest rates on home loans could go up by 50-100 basis points, putting off a large segment of middle-class buyers.
“Real estate prices had already started slackening, this move will lead to more slowdown,” said Ramesh Jogani, managing director at India REIT Fund Advisors, which has invested in several projects. “We see a 15-20 % fall in prices.”
Analysts say the slackening of demand is raising concern over future realizations, which is reflected in the performance of real estate stocks, with most close to their lowest level in a year and 40-60 % off their peaks.
“In the near term, we think affordability will be a bigger driver and a 20% correction in property prices will be needed by the year end to revive volumes,” UBS Investment said in a research note.

Top developers are now betting on green buildings. Green building ,so to say use less energy, water and natural resources, creates less waste and is healthier for the people living inside compared to a standard building – to flatter large number of leaseholder. Even though green buildings involve an incremental cost of 7-10% over traditional buildings, developers see it as an opportunity for differentiation in a growing market.

The trigger is a growing environment consciousness among topnotch tenants, particularly the multinationals. In the request for proposals (RFPs) that are coming in, many MNCs are starting to ask the question about the green quotient. Jones Lang Lasalle-Meghraj chairman and country head Anuj Puri said, “It may not be mandatory today but going forward, many MNCs will make it mandatory”. Developers such as K Raheja and RMZ have decided to go all green.

RMZ’s 1.9 million square feet mall, RMZ Galleria, in Bangalore is currently under construction and will be a green development. So will be K Raheja’s Mindspace projects at Mumbai and Hyderabad, both of which are currently under development. According to CII-Indian Green Building Council (IGBC), 147 million square feet of green space has been registered in India to date across a total of 239 projects. At the moment, K Raheja is planning and developing around 14.5 million square feet of green space across the country. K Raheja associate vice-president Shabbir Kanchwala said, “We are looking at the long-term and want to be the first ones to go green in a big way”.

The Lodha Group, though, is getting into it only partially. Lodha Group senior vice-president Bharat Dhuppar said, “Only our commercial buildings will be green”. Lodha has about twelve buildings in the pipeline and most of them will be commissioned between 2009 and 2010.

In their projects, K Raheja expects the cost to be around 7-8% higher. The savings, though, will be considerable. Kanchwala declared, “We are looking at 30-40% power saving and about 20% water saving”. Further he added, “Also in construction, we try and use a lot of recycled materials — aluminum and glass — as well as mix fly ash with the concrete that is used”. The use of glass too is being reduced. Selvarasu said, “We keep the use of glass to the minimum, to about 35% in commercial and about 20% in retail”.

In a world where energy costs are going up by the day and investments in energy are peaking, a green building which saves precious energy and comes at the same rental for the occupier is a decent marketing tool for developers. Kanchwala said, “Many of our customers are Fortune 500 companies who understand and prefer green buildings”. Selvarasu said, “The future is in sustainability”.

Investors in this country are known to have an appetite for exotic investments.

Irish Life is tapping into this by giving investors an opportunity to invest in commercial property in Asia and Europe through two new funds from Irish Life — Eurasia Property Fund and Eurasia Property Plus Fund.

Irish Life is partnering with Hendersons Global Investors-one of the biggest property investors in the world — which currently manages property assets worth more than $23bn.

The Eurasia Property Fund will initially invest up to 75pc in commercial property with the rest invested in European property shares and cash. One quarter will be invested in European property in 13 different countries.

There is also the Eurasia Property Plus which gives exposure to properties in Japan and Hong Kong,other parts of China and India. The minimum investment is €20,000.

This is high-risk stuff and independent advice would be worth taking.

Hilton Hotels Corp plans to put in three hundred hotels to the existing forty seven in Asia over the subsequent decade, as the firm looks for to catch up with its competitors and cash in on the boom in business and leisure travel in India and China, a media report on 25th June said.
According to The Wall Street Journal Hilton, with nine brands ranging from the opulent Waldorf -Astoria Collection to the thriftier Hampton Inn, expect to administer the majority of these new hotels and leave the investment and ownership of them to others.
“The Asia region is one of our absolute top main concerns for our business and development. The plan is to put about three hundred new hotels in the region. We’d like to do better than that, but that’s our goal,” the report said quoting Hilton’s Chief Executive and President Chris Nassetta.
He also anticipated the value of these planned hotels to be in “the tens of billions of dollars.”
Hilton Hotels is a foremost worldwide hospitality company with more than three thousand hotels in seventy four countries and territories.
The newspaper quoting Nassetta said Hilton is concentrating initially on India, where it has a joint venture with local property firm DLF Ltd. that aims to open seventy five hotels within the subsequent five years.
“Starting in India’s big cities, where population density limits the availability of appropriate land for international -standard hotels, Hilton plans to set up its Hilton Hotels, Homewood Suites by Hilton and Hilton Garden Inn brands,” it noted.

Realty prices might be showing signs of easing, yet its tough to buy a house. Prices are still high and loans are getting expensive. Renting a property is also getting dearer.

According to analysts and developers residential rentals are hardening, registering a 10% growth. The demand for rented residential space is high as India has very low residential rental yields hovering around 3-6%

At the same time home loan interest rates are around 11% to 13%. While new property sales are slowing down, rentals are showing an upwards trend.

Many prospective home buyers are deferring purchase, expecting a dip in prices, and looking for renting accommodation in the short run.
“People are nervous about spending the capital they have in times of uncertainty. Therefore renting remains the only option. Though India is also unique as lot of people prefer to park money in residential projects and lock up apartments, which reduces the supply of apartments for rent, putting an upward pressure,” says global real estate advisory DTZ director Abhilash Lal.

Ansal Housing and Construction Director Kushagr Ansal points out, “Real estate yields in India are very low, pegged at 4-6%. This makes renting a lucrative option.”

Though new supply is being added to the pool of residential properties, it hasn’t really helped in stabilizing rents. Parsvnath Developers COO Dr B P Dhaka said, “New supply is not coming in the preferred centrally located residential areas. Also maintenance and construction costs have gone up in the last one year. All this has contributed to higher rentals.”

Omaxe executive director Vipin Agarwal points out, “Since residential rentals and lease are long term arrangements, there has not been a significant increase in rentals in last 6-8 months (for people already living in rented properties).’’